Gary Con
How to Submit Events
Gary Con needs your events!
Game Masters form the backbone of any convention. They’re the good people who share their love of gaming with others and help us all have a great time.
What We’re Looking For
Gary Con celebrates the life of E. Gary Gygax. Gary made a career out of writing and publishing games, but playing games was his passion! And Gary loved all kinds of games. So, what events does Gary Con want? Well, what games or scenarios do you love and want to share far and wide? If you are ready to bring your favorite games and scenarios to share with everyone, then Gary Con wants your events!
We hate to have to mention it, but please take a moment to review our policies completely (Gary Con Policies) so you understand them thoroughly. Needless to say, everything there goes double for our Game Masters. You can be thought provoking, scary (we’ve hosted some deliciously scary stuff over the years), or even a little ribald (see the note under Age Range though), but we won’t tolerate anything that just plain ruins someone’s weekend. Please be considerate of others and respectful at all times. When running your games, please be sure to make all your decisions for valid game reasons. If you have ANY doubt, please ask GC Staff, which can be reached through the HQ, customerservice@garycon.com, or the GC Discord #helpdesk channel (https://discord.garycon.com).
Submitting
As in years past, we’re using TableTop.Events to handle most of the convention’s nuts and bolts, including event submissions. To get started, you must have an account at TableTop.Events (here) and you must obtain a Gary Con badge (Gary Con TTE Site). If you ran 16 hours of events at Gary Con XV you have a credit good for a Silver badge. Otherwise, you must purchase a badge. If you submit and run at least 16 hours of events this year, you’ll qualify for credit towards a badge for GC XVII! Read more about GM rewards here (GM Rewards!).
Badges are available through TTE, please review our policies Gary Con Terms, Policies, and Waivers before purchasing.
Once you have your badge, you’re ready to begin submitting your events. Go to the Gary Con TTE site, then click the “Submit Events” button. That click will take you to a form for submitting your first event. Once you see the form, just work through all the fields, starting at the top of the page. Here’s an overview of all the fields:
Event Type: Choose the entry from the menu that best fits your event.
Important: Gary Con is offering events for both Physical attendees and Virtual attendees. Event Types that start with the word "Virtual" are for events run as part of the virtual convention. Players with badges for the physical convention can register for these events, even though they’ll be playing virtually. Event Types that do not start with the word "Virtual” are for events run at the physical convention and are for Physical attendees only. There will not be any Physical games that combine Physical and Virtual players this year.
If you plan to run a virtual event, please make sure you scroll down the list and choose one of the virtual event types.
Name: Enter a title for your event. You’re free to choose any name you like, but please keep it family friendly. You’re limited to 60 characters, including spaces and punctuation.
Short Description: Enter a brief description for your event. Anything that’s relevant to your event and family friendly is acceptable. There is a limit of 400 characters, including spaces and punctuation. We’ll use what you’ve entered here for any printed materials that mention your event.
Important: This area is text only.
Long Description: This is an optional field where you can enter whatever you feel you need to adequately describe your event. There’s no character limit, but try not to go too wild. TableTop.Events offers you a palette of tools for formatting your text here. You can add some fancy text formatting and art and web links, too.
Important: Please be aware that the short and long descriptions are separate entities; please make sure that all the information from your short entry also appears in your long entry.
Important: If your event will contain any material not suitable for minors or more sensitive folks, make sure you mention this in your description (both the short description and the long description if you decide to include that). Also be sure to choose the appropriate age range for your event (see the note under Age Range).
Preferred Start Time: Choose a day and starting time for your event from the menu. When we schedule your event, we’ll do our utmost to give you your preferred starting time.
Important: Due to Gary Con having a virtual side that is essentially a 24-hour convention, we will be using the 24-Hour Clock for start times with events.
Hours for the physical convention are:
- TH 0900-2400
- FR 0800-2400
- SA 0800-2400
- SU 0800-1600
We request that you select a starting time that will allow you to complete your event within those hours. If you need to run past midnight (TH-SA) or past 4pm on Sunday, please use the comments field to let us know. Since the virtual side of the convention reaches an international audience, event start times are mostly wide open except that no event can begin until 9am (0900) USA Central Time on Thursday. And the last games must start by 4pm (1600) Central time on Sunday and end no later than midnight.
Alternate Start Time: Please choose an alternate starting time in case we are unable to schedule your event at your preferred time.
Duration: Choose the duration for your event from the menu. If you don’t see a value that exactly matches what you want, please choose the shortest duration that will fit your event.
Important: Gary Con begins games on the hour. When you’re done, we expect you to be picked up and gone in time for the next group scheduled to use your area to begin. It is essential that you stop 15 minutes early and clear your area for the next group. In this year of lingering Covid-19, thorough clean-up is essential. Please plan accordingly.
Max Tickets: Choose the number of tickets you’d like us to make available for your event. If your event won’t have tickets, enter a “1” here and use the comments field to explain what’s going on. As the game master, you don’t need a ticket; so don’t include yourself in the ticket count.
Due to a desire to make more space at each table this year, the form will limit you to seven players or less. We have a very limited number of larger tables available, however. If you want more than seven players, set the number of tickets to seven and use the comments field to tell us how many players you actually want.
Spaces Needed: This field shows the number of different groups you will run at once, either by yourself or with one or more co GMs. If your event is only you and one group of players, set this value to one (1). If you plan to run a single group and you feel you need big space, you still only choose a value to one (1) here; use the note field or the special requests area to request a big space for a single group.
If you will run your event for separate groups of players, or if one or more co GMs will run separate groups, set the value here to the number of groups. Example: You and two groups playing independently would need 2 spaces. You and two co GMs, each running a different group would need 3 spaces.
Age Range: Choose the entry that best fits your event from the menu. Keep in mind that this is only a guideline for people to use when registering for events. If you’re planning anything with adult themes or material that may be objectionable, choose “Legal Drinking Age.” Please refer to the Gary Con Policies and ensure your event strictly adheres to our policies and accepted standards of public decency.
Special Requests: Use the check boxes in this section to indicate special needs you have. Please make a special request only if you truly need it. Checking a box here will make it less likely we’ll be able to give you your preferred event time—it might even prevent us from scheduling your event at all.
If you have a request that does not appear in this section, use the Comments field to relate any other needs you have.
Game System: Find your game system on the menu. If you cannot find an entry that fits, please choose “other” and enter your game system in the comments field at the bottom of the form. We will update our list of game systems as the convention approaches.
Player Experience: Choose the entry that best fits your event from the menu. Keep in mind that this is only a guideline for people to use when registering for events.
Back to Back: Use this field to let us know if your event will run immediately before or immediately after another event you're running. If you answer YES, please use the comments field to tell us what the other event is.
Virtual Tabletop Platform: This field appears only if your event state is virtual. Use the menu to indicate the application or site where your players will roll dice, see maps, and handle other game mechanics. If your site or application does not appear on the menu, choose “Other” and use the comments field to tell us how and where you’ll run the event.
Audio Visual App: This field also appears only if your event state is virtual. Use the menu to indicate the site or application where you and your players will speak or see each other. If your app is not does not appear on the menu, choose “Other” and use the comments field to tell us what you’ll use.
Comments: Use this field to tell us anything else you think we should know about your event. If you chose the “other” entry in any field, please use this field to list your pertinent information. Also, please mention any specific need you might have for your table here, along with an explanation for those needs. For example, if you plan to build a 3D temple that’s three feet wide and six feet long, we’ll need to know that. Include a note here if you want more six tickets for your event than the system allows you to select.
Also, you can explain your needs here if you have checked any of the special request boxes.
Important: Attendees will NOT see anything in the Comments field, so please do not share any information about your event intended for them. This field is ONLY for you to share pertinent info with the Convention's Event Staff.
Once you filled in all the fields on your form, please take a moment to look over everything, then you’re ready to click submit.
After you have submitted at least one event, you can go to the My Events page in your TableTop.Events account (Submitted Events) to see the status of your event. You also can use this page to submit additional events or to edit events you’ve submitted already. This page also allows you to clone events—very handy if you’re submitting several sessions of a single event.
After You Submit
Once you submit your event, the system will alert the staff, who will review your event and either approve it, reject it, or ask for changes, usually within one week or less. Once the staff makes a decision about your event, we will contact you with an email sent to the address you provided when you created your TableTop.Events account. Please watch your inbox (and your spam box if you have one) for replies from the staff.
If you have any questions about your events once you’ve submitted, the best way to contact us is to reply to the confirmation email we send you.